That's a stingy fishery usually, especially this time of year unless that magic cicada hatch goes off.

Great place to spend some time fishing though.

david vaughn

06-16-2018 07:06 AM

I've gone into the south end once before, wasn't all that impressed. All the other dozens of times I've entered the lake from the dam side.

Starting at the dam, I would work that western shoreline immediately from the put-in spot. I cannot recall a time when a brown failed to say hello by taking my SSL. Same for the first hundred yards or so along the western shoreline.

Best fish was on the northern point leading back into the western finger. Way back when I had a round float tube and sitting very low in the water, something grabbed ahold of my SSL, turned me 90 degrees to my left, and drug me several feet out into the lake before the line failed.

Kinda glad, too. Not sure if I really wanted to see what that behemoth was that turned my 245lbs, taking me for a little ride...

Sweet! I've hiked in and fished the dam end of Chevelon but never made it to the inlet; pretty cool looking water up there and seemingly no more difficult than the steep dam hike was. Still, no country for old men. Glad I'm only 73!

stoneflynut

07-01-2018 12:13 PM

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The above is supposed to be a nice brown trout C&R'ed from Chevelon when we hiked in at the dam end of the reservoir, but I was unable to post a picture here. I've tried many times to post pics but just don't seem to have to aptitude to accomplish it. So, imagine a 20" BT caught on 5X slung across my lap while sitting in a float tube. Lots of large irregular black spots covering primarily the upper half but without any red spots...curious...and without the characteristic blue head spot. Large head; likely a male. A truly memorable fish made more so by the effort we had to expend to get in and out of the canyon.
If you've never fished Chevelon, please to yourself a favor and get down there and enjoy fishing the pristine waters without jet skis and party barges.

Levisdad

07-01-2018 02:03 PM

Even though the road sucks and the hump will kick your ***, It's still my favorite place to go. I've caught several 20+" browns & bows where this video was taken. If you pause it at .037 seconds you will be looking south toward the inlet and where the foot trail comes down. I see the eagle every time I go. If you are in a float tube he/she will be watching you...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVyeikIpcgE

stoneflynut

07-01-2018 09:58 PM

Yes indeed, that was all kinds of awesome! Chumming in a bald eagle on a fresh caught rainbow...10/10

lakelady

07-02-2018 04:18 PM

Kind of sucks that you wasted a fish someone else could have caught. Bald eagles can definitely hunt on their own. Game and Fish doesn't get down to stock that lake nearly as often as I'd like.

lostdutchman

07-04-2018 11:03 PM

Feeding a stocker rainbow to a ( wild ) eagle, is the least important problem chevelon faces you should be more upset by the empty styrophome worm containers, powerbait jars, and the photos of 25”+ Fish held up by their gills we see every fall..

Stocked fish are put in to be taken out both by fisherman and birds. What makes Chevy so special is the wild fish ( albeit the Straub has been stocked at some point ) and the wild life ( eagles included)

There’s plenty of stocked fish to chase in the other rim lakes if that’s your deal. IMO feeding a few rubber stickers to the eagles is doing the fishery some good.

M Lopez

07-05-2018 12:38 AM

No, stocked fish are put in to be taken out by fishermen. Period. They are not stocked for birds, 'cause the birds or ESA do not pay for those trout. Anglers pay for hatcheries and stocked trout with your license and gear purchases. You just wasted a trout that another angler might have been happy to catch.

Yes, the wild browns are the main attraction, but there are not enough in there to keep most people happy. Chevelon is supplemental stocked with hatchery rainbows for something to catch when folks can't catch the browns. If the fishing sucks most of the time, some idiot is just going to throw bass in there.

I respectfully disagree that throwing a hatchery rainbow to an eagle instead of releasing it, is doing the fishery any good. And don't forget to add that wasted rainbow to your daily bag limit.